This sandbox is beautiful, but its demo bored me

The demo version of Atlas Fallen brings unfortunate associations with Forspoken, but on the other hand, it was just a small part of a great action-RPG. The game might have enough legs thanks to the gameplay, as the lore looks pretty generic.

If I had to give a title to Atlas Fallen, I would have called it “Atlas Fallen Asleep”. As you can guess, the new game from the creators of the climb and co-creators of lords of the fallen It made an average impression on me and I found it generally boring.. But let’s be clear: I still have no idea what the whole game looks like; I only tried a small part of it and maybe my conclusion is a result of starting this relationship from the wrong place.

I didn’t see the beginning, I didn’t get a chance to meet my character or his motivations. The demo started somewhere in the second chapter and I couldn’t even complete the main quest, but after an extremely lukewarm start, more interesting stuff appeared in a fairly crowded settlement. So while I’m a little worried about the second Forspoken, who dropped both New York and the cheeky girl, Final reviews are definitely worth the wait until the game is released..

ATLAS FALLS

What I liked :

1. the fight;
2. separate health bars for different body parts of big opponents;
3. great potential for upgrading weapons and abilities;
4. beautiful landscapes and world.

What I did not like :

1. introduction to the plot;
2. characters, dialogues, research scenarios, all a bit generic;
3. unsatisfactory exploration.

Saying the same thing for the hundredth time…

My biggest complaint so far is the generic nature of the world, story, characters, and generally the whole lore, which was completely uninteresting, not encouraging exploration, conversations, or task completion. . From the information included in the demo, I thought that we are once again a great hero among the rubble of a world destroyed by a great war, in which the rebel knights wanted to conquer a city or a fortress. They brought powerful magic weapons for this purpose, but they were too weak to take advantage of them, and things got crazy from there.

What those knights couldn’t do, our hero can, and right from the start can wield said magic weapons (for some reason). – a kind of gauntlet of power, which allows you to pick up fragments of ruins to reveal places and perform various tricks during battles. There’s also an enchanted talking ghost in a glove, presumably to give our character someone to talk to, but the dialogue between them is woefully underwhelming; in reality, they are difficult to hear.

Desert views and high-speed sand slides without a snowboard dominate the Fallen Atlas.

The research scenarios didn’t seem very exciting either. First, I found out that the gauntlet is too weak to open the big door and I need to polish it a bit. So, I went to find a suitable artifact, but it turned out that it had to be loaded with three fragments located in opposite places. And of course, each of these objects was protected by a group of enemies resembling oversized scorpions, crabs or wolverines.

After collecting all the parts, I unlocked a series of sand-covered anvils that double as fast travel points and workbenches, and eventually buffed the gauntlet, only to find that whatever it did was to increase the jump height. So, after all the trouble, I still had to search for a power-up, and to my horror, the procedure turned out to be exactly the same: find another artifact and three more shards in other parts of the map. At this point, thankfully, the “Thank you for playing the demo” message popped up… A moment I usually hate!

Navigating in a world atlas could be more interesting

A scaled weapon buff like this is of course nothing bad on its own. This is a widely accepted pattern of character development and perhaps doesn’t seem as commonplace throughout the game. However, I feel like the press demo could have contained a more compelling gameplay snippet, without as much repetition – if the game really contains such fragments, of course. Thing is, the small sample of side quests and conversations with lesser characters doesn’t really give much hope for improvement, but maybe it will get better later in the game. Exploration wasn’t not very fun either. Treasure chests were usually located in easily accessible places, and upon opening them I was either greeted by a wall of text containing a tutorial or given an artifact, usually unrewarding.

Towards the end of the demo, we even start visiting interesting places.

all hope in battle

But the Atlas Fallen demo wasn’t entirely disappointing. Combat, for example, could make this game interesting. In addition to disappointing enemy skins and a weird healing method that requires you to hold down the trigger and press “A” on the keyboard, but even so, the fights felt dynamic and satisfying. We start with a basic set of two blades, and after a series of improvements we gain access to various special powers, such as a huge hammer or the ability to create a violent tornado around us. In addition to this, we have the ability to fly through the air at a certain height, thanks to which the fight gains in verticality.

The combat is so dynamic that it’s hard to focus on the screenshot.

Although the larger the creature we have to defeat, the more chaotic the game becomes, but larger enemies have zoned bodies, with separate health bars for limbs, tail or claws of death, and this works much better than a single long health bar. Overall, there’s a lot of potential in the weapon upgrade system and character perks. Hopefully this will materialize in the final game and the feeling of becoming more and more powerful is part of the experience.

Navigating this world, in turn, is like snowboarding on sand. It’s kind of like Forspoken hero sprints, only faster and longer lasting. It doesn’t look particularly fancy, it doesn’t make the game stand out, but in combination with the dash in the air, it covers a large distance quickly and efficiently – it works as it should. In-game views are also a huge plus. Although these are mostly wastelands, they are quite charming, just like in Mad Max. You can see that it’s not a game with an infinite budget, but you can generally admire the beauty of nature here.

Beautiful landscapes are a great advantage of the game.

Atlas not so fallen?

Atlas Fallen didn’t leave a big impression on me, but I’m pretty picky when it comes to fantasy game vibes and lore. Action RPG fans may find it more interesting, as it looks like there will be no shortage of content. There will definitely be main and side quests, characters you meet along the way and talk to, a huge system of upgrades and abilities, merchants, settlements, biomes with different landscapes and animals that keep treasures. Even such trivial things as changing the appearance of armor require you to first purchase the appropriate dyes from a special vendor. So maybe it’s just that the demo didn’t work, and the game will really have legs and find its audience in the end? We will see.